Technical questions for the MPC2000xl and the MPC2000
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By greenGoat Mon Mar 21, 2005 10:04 pm
Hello,

I'm installing a zip250 in my 2000xl, and I've completed the process, albeit one tiny problem:
It doesn't power up!!!
I tried the drive in another computer and it works fine, gives an LED flash when receiving power, etc.
My drive is an ATAPI.
I've modified the power cable so that the side that fits the motherboard connects to the side that fits the drive, and I checked to make sure that it was conducting... it reads fine, and seems to yield 5V.
The ribbon-cable is correctly installed into the ATA slot right next to the floppy slot.

I can't imagine what the 'ell is going on?!?!

Has anyone had this issue???
thanks in advance,
gG
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By pt3r Tue Mar 22, 2005 12:33 pm
perhaps you switched polarity ?
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By JUKE 179r Tue Mar 22, 2005 3:26 pm
you might have the wires swapped on the power plug.
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By Lampdog Tue Mar 22, 2005 8:39 pm
You need to connect the red and black wires to power.

On the ribbon cable make sure the red wire on the cable is closest to the power.

Maybe the ribbon is connected wrong on the motherboard, reversed, is the ribbon keyed, meaning it only fits one way with a little notch in it?
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By greenGoat Tue Mar 22, 2005 9:43 pm
Hey, thanks for all the responses...

Yeah, I connected the power cable correctly, and as I mentioned, I tested it for conductivity... it read 5V.

The key-style power plug is plugged in the correct direction.

Any other thoughts?
gG
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By Lampdog Tue Mar 22, 2005 10:33 pm
"I've modified the power cable so that the side that fits the motherboard connects to the side that fits the drive, and I checked to make sure that it was conducting... it reads fine, and seems to yield 5V."

Do you have a picture of this, there are pictures on some threads that show exactly how to modify the power cable and what it actually looks like, I can't remember who the thread started was though.

Seems like something with the power cable.
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By Lampdog Wed Mar 23, 2005 4:44 am
Tell everybody what the prob was so that someone can maybe learn what's up.
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By greenGoat Wed Mar 23, 2005 7:30 am
actually the problem's sorta ridiculous...

my drive came to me OEM;
i was using a power cable that i got from a yamaha scsi install kit, which is proprietary.
they apparently have an internal standard of coloring their power cables, because the red/white were on the wrong side (the two that don't connect to any pins on the drive).
instead of:
red|black|black|yellow (standard)
it was:
white|white|white|red

i thought i could trust the color scheme and hooked it up, thinking that the red was where it needed to be.

gG
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By pt3r Wed Mar 23, 2005 8:10 am
Well here's one lesson learned don't trust the colors but actually verify the + and - with a multi meter if in doubt. Gald to hear it worked out fine though. Make sure to keep backups of your ZIPS cause these things eventually die on you :-( like all other storage media.
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By Lampdog Wed Mar 23, 2005 6:46 pm
"You need to connect the red and black wires to power."

Remember me asking you that?
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By greenGoat Wed Mar 23, 2005 9:34 pm
as stated in my last post,
there WERE NO black wires, and the red was on the wrong side;
i did connect the red to the power (to no avail, since the red didn't connect to the pin on the drive).

thanks anyway,
gG